Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming

Design, build and simulate complex robots using Robot Operating System and master its out-of-the-box functionalities

About This Book

• Develop complex robotic applications using ROS for interfacing robot manipulators and mobile robots with the help of high end robotic sensors
• Gain insights into autonomous navigation in mobile robot and motion planning in robot manipulators
• Discover the best practices and troubleshooting solutions everyone needs when working on ROS

Who This Book Is For

If you are a robotics enthusiast or researcher who wants to learn more about building robot applications using ROS, this book is for you. In order to learn from this book, you should have a basic knowledge of ROS, GNU/Linux, and C++ programming concepts. The book will also be good for programmers who want to explore the advanced features of ROS.

What You Will Learn

• Create a robot model of a Seven-DOF robotic arm and a differential wheeled mobile robot
• Work with motion planning of a Seven-DOF arm using MoveIt!
• Implement autonomous navigation in differential drive robots using SLAM and AMCL packages in ROS
• Dig deep into the ROS Pluginlib, ROS nodelets, and Gazebo plugins
• Interface I/O boards such as Arduino, Robot sensors, and High end actuators with ROS
• Simulation and motion planning of ABB and Universal arm using ROS Industrial
• Explore the ROS framework using its latest version

In Detail

The area of robotics is gaining huge momentum among corporate people, researchers, hobbyists, and students. The major challenge in robotics is its controlling software. The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a modular software platform to develop generic robotic applications.

This book discusses the advanced concepts in robotics and how to program using ROS. It starts with deep overview of the ROS framework, which will give you a clear idea of how ROS really works. During the course of the book, you will learn how to build models of complex robots, and simulate and interface the robot using the ROS MoveIt motion planning library and ROS navigation stacks.

After discussing robot manipulation and navigation in robots, you will get to grips with the interfacing I/O boards, sensors, and actuators of ROS. One of the essential ingredients of robots are vision sensors, and an entire chapter is dedicated to the vision sensor, its interfacing in ROS, and its programming.

You will discuss the hardware interfacing and simulation of complex robot to ROS and ROS Industrial (Package used for interfacing industrial robots).

Finally, you will get to know the best practices to follow when programming using ROS.

Style and approach

This is a simplified guide to help you learn and master advanced topics in ROS using hands-on examples.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction to ROS and Its Package Management
Chapter 2: Working with 3D Robot Modeling in ROS
Chapter 3: Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo
Chapter 4: Using the ROS MoveIt! and Navigation Stack
Chapter 5: Working with Pluginlib, Nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins
Chapter 6: Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins
Chapter 7: Interfacing I/O Boards, Sensors, and Actuators to ROS
Chapter 8: Programming Vision Sensors using ROS, Open-CV, and PCL
Chapter 9: Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS
Chapter 10: Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS-MoveIt!
Chapter 11: ROS for Industrial Robots
Chapter 12: Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS